ZAMBOANGA CITY – Three persons, including a seven-year-old child, were killed while three other children were wounded in an encounter between soldiers and members of the Abu Sayyaf Group at Sitio Logon, Barangay Limaong here early Friday morning.
Colonel Leonel Nicolas, the commander of Joint Task Force Zamboanga, said troops of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 11 (MBLT11) were on patrol around 5:30 a.m. following reports that three armed men, all Abu Sayyaf suspects, were recruiting members in Sitio Logon.
“Upon reaching the island, the marines were fired upon, so, the marines fired back, (triggering) a 10-minute firefight. When the shooting stopped, the marines found a dead man with an M16 rifle in a makeshift house. They also recovered a dead woman and a child,” Nicolas said.
He said the woman and the seven-year-old child were hit in the crossfire.
Three other children, aged four, five, and eight, were wounded and immediately brought to a nearby hospital.
Based on the photo gallery of the Abu Sayyaf, the military identified the slain gunman as Abu Nebras, who joined the group of Abdullah Indanan, a sub-leader of Puruji Indama in Basilan.
Nicolas said the military was earlier alerted about Nebras’ arrival in Limaong island on November 7 with two other colleagues.
Nebras allegedly started recruiting minors to join the Abu Sayyaf and bragged about his involvement in the Lamitan bombing on July 31, where 11 people were killed and 10 others were wounded. /kga